New rehab unit to help thousands get clean

Larry Churn (with scissors), executive director of Charlie's Place, and Tiffany Waid (to his left), who is in charge of nursing services, and the rest of the staff and supporters open the new Coastal Bend Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation

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CORPUS CHRISTI - The executive and clinical directors at Charlie's Place are two of the more than 17,000 clients helped with addiction in the past 42 years at the Coastal Bend drug and alcohol rehab center.

&quot;Many of our staff have been through detox,&quot; said executive director Larry Churn, who went through detox more than 20 years ago. &quot;We know what it's like. That's why we come back to help others.&quot;

More than 100 people -- caregivers, supporters and ministry and community leaders -- bowed heads Thursday morning as the Most Rev. Bishop Edmond Carmody blessed the Brownlee Boulevard center's new 5,500-square-foot detoxification unit. The diocesan leader prayed for each new client entering the 44-bed unit to be treated with respect and dignity.

In the new unit, a medical director diagnoses and sets treatment for clients to help with depression, physical withdrawal pain and intense craving, said clinical director Norman Spells. &quot;It's a medication issue,&quot; he said. &quot;So, they are monitored 24 hours a day by a nurse and medical assistants.&quot;

The center's biggest issue is that people view addiction as a moral choice, Spells said. &quot;People don't offer financial support for addiction like they do for cancer or heart disease, despite alcoholism being defined as a disease,&quot; he said.

Many of those who walk in off the street wanting help must wait for federal funding that can take weeks, and they fall back to abuse waiting on the financing, Spells said. &quot;Most go back to their drug or bottle and never come back.&quot;

The center has served about 900 people from a 19-county area each year and, with the new unit, can help 2,400 people. But it still needs operating funds, said Dennis Dolce, board president. Most of the center's approximately $2.8 million annual budget comes from state grants and federal funds, which must be applied for one patient at a time.

It will take about $1 million more to stop turning away the 15 or so people each week who want service but can't pay, Churn said. Statistically, 65 percent of the center's clients who complete programs maintain sobriety.

&quot;There's no shortage of folks in need,&quot; he said. &quot;Seventy-one percent of people say their life is impacted by substance abuse, whether themselves, family, co-worker or friend.&quot;

People can't get sober until they detox, said Ann Fitz, 76, who operates Dorothy Day House, a shelter support program for alcoholic men, with her teacher retirement checks. Many of the men she helps go through detoxification elsewhere before earning a place with their sobriety at the day house.

&quot;We all serve the same folks -- those nobody else will help,&quot; Fitz said. &quot;That's why this new detox unit is so important.&quot;